What Do You Have to be Thankful For? (2011)

[The Gorn]

I'll start.

My freelance work has become sporadic - I am hurting a bit there. My past clients for the last 10 years have all given me disrespect and the shaft, and even at that my earnings have not been great before I changed directions.

However ...

I am thankful that my spirit has not been crushed by circumstances. I'm still fighting. Most of my thanks are for having a constructive frame of mind.

I am thankful that unlike many people near my age, I am still capable of significant self improvement, change and self renewal.

I am thankful that I don't have the Asperger's that plagues so many in our industry. I am a free thinker (not to be confused with amorally selecting pleasures like a buffet line.) I have great reasoning capabilities. I don't get stuck like "Rain Main" obsessing over some energy sapping triviality.

I have great implementation capabilities (I don't just mean punching a keyboard) that most people don't have. That plus my persistence distinguishes me from the masses of unemployed who are waiting for their salaried job to come back.

I am able to distinguish between lack of current opportunity in front of me, and true hopelessness.

I am not emotionally needy. I don't need to make disparaging comments about others and draw attention to myself as some sort of anonymous board pseudo-expert  in order to feel more important.

I have great health, a loving wife, and decent finances.

This year I was finally, with no assistance from anyone in my family nor elsewhere, able to stabilize, for many years to come, the living situation of a family member with disabilities that our supposed nanny state system has never provided decently for.

I am thankful for that small group of friends * who do not exempt themselves from helping me because they're allegedly too important, or they are tapped out and just can't spare the caring just because, or because I am not important enough, and just help. It's so easy for people today to play the douchbag card, justify to themselves that they don't need to help, and wall off others. I try to do the same for the least of people. Even when they perhaps don't visibly merit it to other.

I am trying to stop thinking about what should have been or what ought to be or what could have been. Just what I need to do to move toward what I want.



* There is no subtext here about the "donation drive". I'm talking about friends who will (or won't) spare an encouraging word, or listen attentively, or will thoughtfully give me truly helpful suggestions that aren't about validating their own egos.

[Carrie Cobol]

I'll go.  I'm thankful for a husband who is not only sexy, cute, funny, intelligent, responsible, and kind-hearted but he also does housework.     ("I love a man who knows where the towels are kept."  - Bob from Black Adder)

I'm thankful that we stumbled upon the most amazingly great dog breed that I fell stupid in love, had to adopt another one, and jumped with both feet into helping others adopt these dogs.  I'm thankful for both of my angels.  In this horrible economy many people have been forced to give their animals to shelters because they couldn't take care of them.  Me, you have to pry my animals out of my cold, dead hands.  (The cat, too.)

I'm thankful that I was only out of work for about 5 months in THIS economy.  I mentioned in another thread that success is half hard work and half luck.  I never cease to marvel at the luck I've had throughout my life.  I've had toils and troubles, but somehow always manage to come out better than okay.  I took a small pay cut for this job, but it's a pretty good company and pretty good job.  And it's a 10 minute commute so I can come home for lunch every day with my hounds.

And I'm always and forever thankful for my mom, who earned her wings in heaven multiple times throughout my life.  She's got a cast-iron stomach and a heart as big as a barn.

I'm sure there's more, but if I named each and every one, it would get boring.  I'm generally an optimist and generally always thankful for life.

[I D Shukhov]

* Good health
* A good relationship with my wife
* Decent financial situation
* A good macro environment:  e.g. living in the U.S.
* I think I know the way forward for an avocation that I can turn into an acceptable vocation and, importantly, I haven't changed my mind about it for a long time.
* The fact that we are living at the beginning of the Information Age and can witness and perhaps participate in humankind's evolution.

[datagirl]

My 2011 hit-list of thanks:

* My house is paid for, so the money we used to spend on the mortgage can go to other survival needs and eradicating the rest of our debt.

* My sweet husband, who puts up with my moods and whims and never fails to give me hugs when I need them.  He's so generous... he *lets* me do things for him. 

* My stepson, who told me this year that he loves me like I was his own mom.  He has almost single-handed caught us up on the majority of our deferred maintenance projects on the homestead in a way that has probably saved us thousands of dollars.

* My stepson's in-laws who are hosting them in Tennessee this past week so we are getting a much needed break from having extra people and critters in our home.

* My best friend since our freshman year of college and my sister-in-law in Mississippi who keep my email inbox full of funny jokes and uplifting messages.

* The rest of my immediate and extended family, especially the ones who stay in touch even though they have busy lives.

* My critters, especially this year the two horses we had put down, one due to old age health issues and one that had a sudden illness.  We had them both for over 20 years.  They were good friends.  We still have 4 horses, 1 curmudgeonly dog who doesn't get daylight savings time shifts, 1 cat (who stole my heart last year as a feral kitten) and her half-grown litter of 4 kittens who are friendly and hilarious in their antics.

* My ancestors (I'm a family history buff), who collectively worked hard, some under very dire circumstance, doing all sorts of things great and small, so that I could be here today in relative comfort, taking for granted so much that I have that they didn't.  I do a lot of "time travel," trying to put myself in their shoes and wondering how I would have done in their respective lifetimes.

* The handful of online fora (this place prime among them), where I can post and lurk, keeping me informed and entertained about areas that interest me that no one in my "real" life give a whit about.

* The internet in general and the technology that allows me to sit here in my relative solitude and be connected to the world.

I wish you all a safe and happy Thanksgiving.  Cyberhugs to all!
-DG

[TRexx]

A loving, supportive family

Good health

Relatively stable finances

[ronin]

thankful for:

--loving supportive wife; keeps the house going w/o much drama when I am away for extended periods;

--decent IT job in military setting; regardless of being old as dirt, I am certain I am being judged solely on performance and not other extraneous factors--have not had that feeling in the workplace in decades;

--working with all American coworkers, most of them cleared and some cleared at highest level (me, too, soon)--have never worked with a better crowd; visa scourge that plagues commercial I.T. is nowhere to be seen around here;

--two cats that quickly find Dad's lap even when he's been away for months;

--for those who serve; and for the chance to respectfully welcome back the remains of a few who have given it all, so we can comfortably, and safely, enjoy our holidays;